We might be looking at another Monday race here at Pocono, so keep an eye on the radar this weekend. The last I checked, Brian Neudorff had out odds of racing on Sunday at about 50/50. Looking at the overall race trends here at Pocono, usually having a good qualifying effort translates into a good race run. With that being said, there’s quite a few good race cars that start mid-pack this weekend, so it will be fun to see how they work their way toward the front. Martin Truex, Jr. and Carl Edwards will lead the field to the green for this year’s Pennsylvania 400, and it’s worth noting that five of the top 6 qualifiers on Friday were Yahoo! B Group drivers.
Last weekend our official Fantasy Racing Online Yahoo! team ended up with 294 points, which is actually lower than it should have been thanks to Ryan Newman wrecking out late. That’s just how this season is going, though. We’re back up in the 66th percentile overall but we can’t seem to get over that hump. Hopefully this weekend we finally do just that.
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Pocono 2
Neither of our A Group picks (Joey Logano and Kurt Busch) have looked stellar this weekend, but really there’s only cause for concern with one of them. Typically, Joey Logano isn’t that fast until the second half of the race. I don’t know why, but that just seems to always be the case. He did have the 7th-best ten-lap average in Happy Hour here on Saturday, though. Kurt Busch started off the weekend somewhat slow and has progressively gotten better. He wound up with the 4th-best lap in Happy Hour, but typically when he has gotten off to a slow start this season, race days haven’t been much fun for fantasy owners. With that being said, he is using the same car he won with here at Pocono in June, so that’s something. Still, we’re going to roll with Joey Logano in the A Group this weekend, as he not only starts higher but he also has three top 5s in the last four races at this track.
It looks like the B Group might steal the show this weekend. Don’t under-estimate the value of track position this weekend, and keep in mind that Denny Hamlin has the best among the A Group drivers. He was also very happy with his car in the practice session on Friday, but it looks like they regressed a bit on Saturday. If Kevin Harvick started closer to the front he would be the #1 pick in the A Group no matter what. However, that’s not the case, although he has one of the best cars in the field for Sunday’s race. Brad Keselowski either does great here at Pocono or stumbles hard, and it looks like that #2 Ford is going to be a contender this weekend. Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth should both be solidly inside the top 10, and as far as Jimmie Johnson goes, we’d like him a lot better if he didn’t qualify 21st. He’s made his way through the field before here at Pocono, though.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Kevin Harvick, (2) Brad Keselowski, (3) Denny Hamlin, (4) Joey Logano, (5) Kurt Busch, (6) Kyle Busch, (7) Matt Kenseth, (8) Jimmie Johnson
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Pocono 2
For the second week in a row, Kasey Kahne qualified in the mid-20s, and if you look at his history here at Pocono–and any race track, really–he’s typically not a very good Fantasy NASCAR pick when he doesn’t qualify near the front. He didn’t do anything in Happy Hour on Saturday to sway our judgment there, so Kahne is already a “no” as far as starting B Group drivers this weekend. Now we’re left with Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, and Carl Edwards.
Tony Stewart is going to be an automatic start this weekend. He qualified 6th for this year’s Pennsylvania 400, and while his Happy Hour practice rank wasn’t great (20th), he did have the 8th-best ten-lap average in that session and ran a whole bunch of laps, which is typically a very good sign. This #14 team has finished 11th or better in five of the last six Sprint Cup races overall and Smoke ran 9th in this Pocono event one year ago. So there’s one starter. Now we have to decide between Kyle Larson and Carl Edwards.
The #42 team spent a lot of time working on the brake system of their Chevrolet during Happy Hour, and in our opinion it didn’t seem like they worked out all of the kinks there. With that being said, Larson still showed a bunch of speed, ranking 7th on the overall speed chart and 12th in ten-lap average (although that lower rank can be attributed the run being at the beginning of the session). He’s also never finished worse than 12th here at Pocono, and if we’ve learned anything it’s that you need to start Kyle Larson where he is historically very good at. Carl Edwards, on the other hand, starts on the outside pole for this year’s Pennsylvania 400 and should be a lock for a top 10 finish. But do we want to waste a start on that? We still have 6 left with Edwards, but he hasn’t had a top 5 here at Pocono since 2010. That could change this weekend, though, and right now we’re leaning toward starting Carl Edwards alongside Tony Stewart, although that might change on race day.
Martin Truex, Jr. has to be the favorite heading into this year’s Pennsylvania 400. He’s on the pole, had the best ten-lap average in Happy Hour, and is using the same car that he dominated with at Charlotte. If you have him on your roster, we think you have to start him this weekend. All three of the Richard Childress Racing cars look stout this weekend and should have at least top 15 potential in the race. Paul Menard came home 11th in this race last season and could have a similar result this time around considering he starts top 5. We’re expecting a similar run out of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. like he had in the June race (15th), and A.J. Allmendinger is a very nice sleeper option if you have him to use this weekend. He finished 7th in this race one year ago, came home 16th in the June Pocono race earlier this season, and will start Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400 from the 13th place.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Martin Truex, Jr., (2) Carl Edwards, (3) Tony Stewart, (4) Kyle Larson, (5) Ryan Newman, (6) Austin Dillon, (7) Paul Menard, (8) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (9) Jamie McMurray, (10) A.J. Allmendinger, (11) Kasey Kahne, (12) Greg Biffle, (13) Danica Patrick, (14) Trevor Bayne, (15) Aric Almirola, (16) Casey Mears, (17) Clint Bowyer
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Pocono 2
It looks like Chase Elliott is the best pick among the C Group drivers. He finished 4th in the spring race here at Pocono and has shown flashes of speed this weekend as well, including qualifying 8th and posting the 5th-fastest lap in Happy Hour. However, as usual, you have to think of the numbers game in this C Group and whether you need to save those Chase Elliott starts for later on in the year. Our team is already down to 5 remaining, although we do have 7 left with Ryan Blaney. As far as Jeff Gordon, it looks as though he’s struggling to get ahold of the race car like at Indianapolis last weekend. With that being said, he did wind up finishing 13th in that race, although you have to keep in mind that that was aided heavily by the cautions at the end of the race. Because of that–and we’re probably going to regret this later–we’re going to bite the bullet and start Chase Elliott in the C Group this weekend and see if he can put up another near-race-winning performance on Sunday (and break out of this slump he’s in).
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Jeff Gordon, (4) Chris Buescher, (5) Michael McDowell, (6) Regan Smith, (7) Landon Cassill, (8) David Ragan, the rest
